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# Overburden pressure

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 Title: Overburden pressure Author: World Heritage Encyclopedia Language: English Subject: Collection: Publisher: World Heritage Encyclopedia Publication Date:

### Overburden pressure

Overburden pressure, also called lithostatic pressure, confining pressure or vertical stress, is the pressure or stress imposed on a layer of soil or rock by the weight of overlying material.

The overburden pressure at a depth z is given by

p(z) = p_0 + g \int_{0}^{z} \rho(z) \, dz

where ρ(z) is the density of the overlying rock at depth z and g is the acceleration due to gravity. p0 is the datum pressure, the pressure at the surface.

In deriving the above equation, we have assumed that gravitational acceleration g is a constant over z, since it is placed outside the integral. In reality, g is a (non-constant) function of z and should appear inside the integral. But since g varies little over depths which are a very small fraction of the Earth's radius, it is placed outside of the integral in practice for most near-surface applications which require an assessment of lithostatic pressure. In deep-earth geophysics/geodynamics, gravitational acceleration varies significantly over depth and g may not be assumed to be constant.

Compare with the equivalent concept of hydrostatic pressure in hydrodynamics.